Cunning, Quidditch and a lot of noise
by shakespeare-lozza
Summary: ONESHOT - Hermione has been watching Draco for a while now, however only cunning, quidditch and a lot of noise can ever bring them face to face -april challenge-


To say Hermione was being whimsical would have been an outright lie.

To say she was bloody insane probably would have been a bit more accurate.

With a troubled sigh, Hermione felt the glass fog up before her vision, a cloud of hazy white condensation smearing across the icy pane. Wiping her fingers across the translucent surface, she felt her brows furrow in agitation as she focused her gaze upon a tiny figure that appeared to be racing by her window.

This was the twenty-ninth time she had sat here.

Wednesday would make it the thirtieth.

And when the Slytherin quidditch team resumed practice again next Friday, she would be well on her way towards reaching forty times.

Hermione forced herself away from the window sill only to return to her Potions Paper, another five inches and she would be done. Only five more inches about the magical properties of woodland toadstools and she could be finished once and for all… that is, until the next time Snape decided to begin the next round of educational torture. Sadly for Hermione, it was in less than five minutes that she found herself scribbling randomly along the margins of her parchment. The quill seemed to move beneath her fingers, embellishing the page with swirls which were rather out of character.

_Hermione!_

_You WILL work._

_You wi-_

Suddenly a strange cacophony sounded outside, like a motorbike revving up inside a crystal dome, a strange sweetness beneath the madness. The noise was ear-splitting causing her ears to ring in agony.

She would have been back at the window in an instant if she hadn't heard a sudden crash downstairs. With haste she tugged a cardigan on before racing down into the Gryffindor common room, her eyes were met with absolute mayhem with students running all over the place, instigating more fear and curiosity that was needed in such a situation. Hermione was immediately met by Harry, whom grabbing her roughly by the shoulder shouted loudly, "What the bloody hell was that?"

Hermione shrugged, "I have no idea," she yelled, her voice unnaturally absent from her own hearing. She began gesturing wildly with her hands, "I get the feeling that some of the first years are giving unnecessary gravity to the situation though."

They both looked on in amazement as two said juniors attempted to cast protective charms on themselves, only to have one turn an unfortunate shade of puce.

Harry suppressed a laugh, "lucky they don't know how to apparate, otherwise they'd be in a lot of trouble. Splintered between here and Diagon Alley all over a loud noise, that would not be pretty."

"Lucky none of us are allowed to apparate," Hermione giggled, "I don't really think panic discriminates when it comes to age…"

Neville ran past in a flurry muttering something under his breath about putting his toad in lockdown.

Hermione sighed, only to notice that the wailing sound had finally disappeared, "thank Merlin that's over…" Gingerly she shook her head, as if ensuring everything was still in working order, "If that had gone on for another two minutes I swear that half the school population would have been pushing up the daisies. Can you imagine it? 'Mass Cardiac Arrests from an Overdose on Unfounded Panic; Hogwarts Suffers Again', the Daily Prophet would have a field day!"

"Hey you know who I feel sorry for right now?" Harry laughed, a very ominous look of mischief danced merrily across his vision. Hermione immediately felt wary. "Bloody Malfoy and his beloved Slytherin quidditch team are out on the grounds today for practice, the noise has probably slaughtered them by now!"

Hermione's eyes widened in horror as Harry's lithe form doubled over in undisguised mirth, loud guffaws rocking his frame.

"Oh sweet Merlin!" Hermione was ducking out of the portrait hole as fast as a rabbit, racing down countless flights of stairs towards the nearest exit.

How could she have forgotten about him?

She'd been watching his for weeks now, secretly admiring the beauty and finesse that was Draco Malfoy. The old her would have been devastated at such an omission in judgement, however the new Hermione Granger realised that she had been rather in love with that-sodding-weasel-Malfoy for a good while now.

Something she most certainly couldn't tell Harry or Ron, that is, without being killed.

And unfortunately, in spite of her famous bravado, she wasn't quite ready to admit that she was infatuated with her worst enemy. At least not publically.

Hermione prayed that Draco wasn't lying in some contorted position on the ground still in shock from the mystery sound waves. If he had fallen off his broom…

_Oh dear…_

Hermione quickened her step, running into the open air only to see the Slytherin team laughing like a pack of hyenas; Crabbe was rolling around on the ground.

_A bit like an over stuffed pig._

Hermione shook the thought from her mind, her eyes scanning for any sight of Malfoy.

Suddenly his presence burst before her eyes like a myriad of colour, before settling on a beautiful bottle green with threads of silver. The look in his eyes leapt like wildfire, causing Hermione's heart to skip a beat.

Suddenly their eyes met and a smirk rapidly overcame his features, "Granger, I'm surprised to see you're still standing upright."

Hermione couldn't mask the look of puzzlement that washed over her, "wha-?"

Malfoy looked at her in pity, and Hermione felt wave upon wave of hurt flood her every pore, his dry drawl sounded loudly, "did you enjoy our little trick, Mudblood? Thought it might be fun to blow out the hearing of the competition, rather impetuous of me I will admit, however Slytherin's are said to be a cunning lot." His mass of cronies laughed almost in unison.

_It was them._

_Him._

_Malfoy caused the sound waves..._

_What an infantile, stupid-_

"So how is Potter faring, mm?" Malfoy's lip cocked upwards in a supercilious smile.

Hermione gritted her teeth in anger, "You bas-"

Malfoy cut her off without another word, "You know Granger, if you weren't such a freak, I might even say you looked pretty when you are angry."

Anger was suddenly replaced by shock, her mouth hanging agape in unmitigated surprise.

Malfoy moved a few steps closer, lowering his voice as to be unheard by his team mates, "by the way," Hermione was drawn to him like unwilling lead filings to a magnet, "next week's practice has been moved to Thursday, just in case you wanted to know."

And with that he swivelled on his heel to rejoin his friends, leaving a very flushed Hermione in his wake.

To say this lead to mild speculation would have been an outright lie.

To say this information was around the school in less than ten minutes probably would have been a bit more accurate.


End file.
